Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
Daniel Dvorkin
boosted
The next time you hear someone say “the Constitution will keep that from happening,” remember, the Constitution is not going to leap from its display case at the National Archives and fly to the rescue. *People* who want to uphold the Constitution will try to keep it from happening. So when you hear that, make sure to ask: “Which people? Do they have enough power to do so?”
@artemis that too.😐
Woe to the land whose king is a child.
You remember that #StarTrek episode where a #planet was about to be #destroyed, and almost the entire population traveled back to previous times in the planet's history where they would live out their lives?
I've been thinking about that a lot lately for some reason.
Ending a post with "let that sink in" is almost always code for "everything above is #bullshit." It's the counterpart to starting with "#technically," which is a nice compact way to say "everything that follows is bullshit."
Huh. I wonder, if you start with "technically" and end with "let that sink in," do they negate each other, or act as intensifiers? Clearly more #research is needed.
†There are reasons to doubt the very worst of the accusations against #MZB, but what we know is true is bad enough.
The screenshot is a post by a friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, from several years ago. It's horribly relevant again, for obvious reasons.
I'd prefer to know, on the whole. Particularly when the artist in question is still alive: I may (or may not) still be able to enjoy their art that I already have, but I want to know whose pockets to avoid lining. Once they're dead, "separate the art from the artist" becomes a lot easier for me.
Of course I'd far rather there were nothing *to* know. I wish with all my heart that Edgar Rice #Burroughs and HP #Lovecraft were not raging racists, that Marion Zimmer #Bradley were not at the very least an enabler of child molestation and perhaps† a molester herself, that Joss #Whedon were a feminist in deed as well as word, that JK #Rowling believed the messages about equality and inclusion she gave a whole generation of children and their parents, that Neil #Gaiman were a kind and decent person who created mythologies to tell thoughtful stories about the human condition. But since they are what they are and were what they were, that's not an option.
There are writers I still regard as role models *as writers* even if I don't care for them much as people. Not monsters, for the most part, just garden-variety jerks. The way they put words together speaks to me, as I want my words to speak to my readers. I'm not in a hurry to give up what they've taught me by example.
Still. I don't have a whole lot of money to spend, and I'd rather that what I do have go to people I don't despise. Knowing is almost always better.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the security of our #meatballs, at home and around the world.
@vivtek Fair point. I think that's our talent for showmanship manifesting in a particularly unpleasant way.
Another day, another "LOL #seppos are so dumb, no one else would go #antivax the way they have" argument.
The modern antivax movement was kicked off about thirty years ago by Andrew #Wakefield, who is #British. These days it's #worldwide, and the US is not at all the worst offender: e.g. see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31441-x?fromPaywallRec=false
I know it's very satisfying to think 'Muricans are uniquely stupid. People in other countries who smugly believe that are blinding themselves to a lot of homegrown dangers.
@micahflee It's like if Fawkes et al. had been invited to join Parliament.
@OhOkKay I sure hope so. Right now, to me it looks grim AF on both sides of the border.
Another day, another "it's #scifi, it doesn't need to be realistic!" argument. Therefore, another canned reply.
The first word in "#science #fiction" is "science." As both a scientist and #SF writer, I really appreciate it when writers put as much thought into making their work as credible as possible, and try to do the same in my own. Break whatever rules you need to tell the story you want (faster-than-light travel, #aliens that can cross-breed with humans, whatever) but don't ask readers to *unnecessarily* suspend their disbelief.
Or as the saying goes in fantasy, "If you want me to believe in #dragons, get the #horses right."
... now I suppose I should really get back to either writing science fiction or doing science, because deadlines are absolutely part of the here-and-now.
It is the #Eternal #Chicken. We can observe the echoes of its hatching as the #cosmic #background #radiation from the Big Bang. Eventually it will grow larger than the #universe itself, at which point everything will collapse into a new #singularity and be reborn in another unimaginable blast of fire and fury. The #phoenix myth reflects our ancestors' dim understanding of this cosmic truth.
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
